Item HT 39024 Toy Clown - Jakas Toys, Blue & White Polka Dots, Melbourne, 1960s

Summary

Cloth figure of a toy clown dressed in a blue cotton jumpsuit with white polka dots. Part of an archive of unsold stock samples donated by the manufacturer. While the toy is from the 1960s (see SH 000657 Toy Clown - Jakas Toys, Red & White polkadots), the tags were added in the 1990s, when Jakas were selling off some of their older unsold stock.)

Jakas Soft Toys was a Melbourne-based company which designed and manufactured genuine high quality soft toys from 1956. Their range included teddy bears, golliwogs, animals and birds. They ceased production in the late 1990s outlasting many local toy manufacturers competing with cheaper overseas imports.

With children's health and safety in mind, the toys were made from wool and synthetic plush, quality fabrics, non-allergic filling and 'safety eyes'. The Jakas range of soft toys came with care and washing instructions and could be handed down for generations.

Physical Description

Thin and floppy toy clown made from white cotton material and dressed in a royal blue cotton jumpsuit with white polka dots. There is a frilly, elasticised piece of red patterned cotton material around its neck as a collar, and red material has been sewn onto the ends of its legs as pointy shoes. The clown's head is made from a cream coloured cotton material with two hand-stitched black crosses as eyes, a protruding round red plastic nose and a mouth hand sewn in chain-stitch with red cotton. It has pink acrylic fluff as hair on either side of its face and around the back of the head with a bald patch on top of the head. There is a 'Jakas Soft Toys' swing tag and small triangular Australian Made label attached to the frilly collar with a plastic joiner. A white cotton label is stitched onto the inside of its right foot with 'Jakas Toys' embroidered in red.